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AJT purchase may be delayed again

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Since it is the politicians who decide on defence, the purchase of the long-awaited Advanced Jet Trainers for the Indian Air Force is not likely to happen anytime soon.

The latest hurdle, propped up during a meeting of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence on Wednesday, could even force the government to start afresh the process for buying the jets.

The lack of AJTs, plans for which have been pending for 14 years now, is cited as one reason for the IAF's high accident rate.

According to sources, MPs, many of them from the opposition, accused the government of almost accepting the offer for the British Hawk without exploring the global market properly. The defence ministry had almost finalised plans to buy Hawks for Rs 600 million each, the MPs said.

Suresh Kalmadi of the Congress raised the issue and demanded that a fresh global tender be called for the AJT purchase. He said the defence ministry was proceeding with the same tender started several years ago, when there were very few players in the field.

The ministry had received tenders only from two companies, British Aerospace and French Alpha Jet. And the latter closed down a few years ago.

The MPs said the Hawks, currently being used by the Royal Air Force in Britain have shown signs of metal fatigue and other problems.

They also pointed out that the Hawk technology is almost three decades old. The price of Rs 600 million for a Hawk was double the market price, the MPs claimed.

They said there were other AJTs like the Aeamacchi MB 339 FD, the YAK 130, the MIG-AT etc available at half the price and with more modern technology.

Defence secretary T R Prasad assured the members that the IAF would make a presentation to the Standing Committee on the AJT issue, but that did not satisfy the MPs. The MPs accused the defence ministry of bypassing the standing committee, and demanded that the Parliament committee be informed about details of the huge contract.

Defence ministry officials refused to comment on the MPs' demand but some said that the objections raised could further delay the purchase of AJTs.

The AJT is one of the oldest proposals of the Indian Defence Establishment.

According to available information, in the last eight years IAF has lost over 190 aircraft. And today, young pilots just out of the Air Force Academy are flying MiG-21s in the absence of an advanced training aircraft.

Before that, they fly a Kiran, an obsolete trainer, which gives them no preparation for aircraft like the Mirage 2000 and Sukhoi-30.

The IAF has lost over 20 fighters in the last year, most of them MIG-21s flown by young flying officers just out of the Air Force Academy.

IAF officials admit that IAF has one of the highest accident rates in the world, having lost 147 aircraft and 63 pilots between 1991 and 1997.

"The major reasons could be the lack of advance jet trainers, and some technical troubles, especially with the MiG-21s," a senior air force officer said.

Last year the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence had pointed out the immediate need for an AJT while pulling up the government for delaying the purchase.

Sources say the upgradation of the IAF's MiG-21 fleet has not yet borne fruit. The IAF and Russia had tied up to organise a major technical facelift and to upgrade MIG-21s, but only two fighters have been upgraded yet.

In March last year, Defence Minister George Fernandes said of the 37 IAF aircraft crashes since January 1997, technical defects caused 15 and human error accounted for 12 others. In three cases, both factors combined. In two accidents, the mishaps involved Kiran Mk 1A trainers.

Senior IAF officers said it was necessary to train pilots in an AJT too so reduce human error.

The last independent audit of IAF's flight safety was done in 1997, by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It had examined the nature of 187 accidents and 2,729 incidents involving IAF aircraft between April 1991 and March 1997.

The CAG had pointed out that though the "overall accidents per 10,000 flying hours have registered a decline over the period 1991-97, the accident rate of fighter stream, particularly MiG-21 variants continue to be high".

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